Monthly Archives: January 2008

Site stats – January 2008

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Greetings from February. All of you who are still stuck in January as you read this – come on over, the water’s fine!

There were 152 new entries here at Trollhattan Saab in January 2008, including much about the Detroit Auto Show and the Saab 9-4x BioPower concept.

By a long margin, the most commented on item was the article showing the first pictures of the 9-4x, which received 174 comments. Other high-interest posts included:

The site served 250,312 pages during January, an average of 8,075 pages per day to 4,489 individual users per day. This was no-doubt boosted by the release of the Saab 9-4x BioPower concept and the interest it created, which was considerable.

Here’s the info from the department of charts and graphs:

Site stats

I have to warn devotees of the 2-column layout that I may be reverting back to the 3-column for a while, just to get a feel for the effect it will have on the site.

It’s a constant evolution around here…..

Saab Pride – Viggen that makes me weep style

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It’s time for you another entry in the Saab Pride of Ownership Competition, kindly sponsored by the good gents at Elkparts.

As you might guess from the title, what we have here is a Saab 9-3 Viggen that’s making me cry with it’s sheer beauty. Oh, how I’m missing mine when I see images like this.

These were sent in by Alexandra, from Austria.

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My name is Alexandra, I am 24 years old and live in Vienna/ Austria.

First, some information about my Saab:

It is a 2000 Saab 9-3 Viggen, and my third Saab. I bought the Viggen for me as a birthday present in April 2006. It is one out of only 4 registered Viggens in Austria and so I really take care of it. I am sure you all know about the engine and the car.

I also run a Saab forum, which is already mentioned at your page (www.swedcarforum.at), with which users we often hold Saab meetings and regulars´tables.

- In my first picture you can see my 9-3 Viggen in front of the mountains of the “Nationalpark Kalkalpen” in Upper Austria, which is one of six nature protection areas in Austria to protect animals and of course, nature. I visited this national park when I joined a big Saabmeeting there in 2006.

Saab Viggen

- In the second picture you can see my car in front of an Austrian countryhouse-mansion with the Austrian flag in its garden.

Saab Viggen

- The third picture shows my Viggen, and in the background my boyfriends 9000 Aero, in front of the worlds largest climate/wind canal in Vienna, where trains and subways are tested e.g. for extremely cold areas (Siberia) or for thier aerodynamics.

Saab Viggen

- In the last picture my Saab is situated directly in front of the Danube river and the Vienna International Center (UNO-City), which was built in 1979 and makes Vienna after Geneva and New York the third United Nations-City.

I hope, you now can imaginge how beautiful the “country of alps” Austria is, especially in a Saab.
Greetings from snowy Austria and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Saab Viggen

Trollhattan Saab and the Geneva Motor Show

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It’s with some sadness that I have to announce that Trollhattan Saab is quite likely to go unrepresented at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

This is particularly sad given the importance of the showing that Saab will have there – a premium compact concept vehicle, referred to here and elsewhere as the Saab 9-1.

Saab Sweden have let me know that a representative would be welcome. They can help us with getting a media pass to get into the press events and provide interview opportunities etc. But due to space constraints they will not be providing accommodation in Geneva for the show. Whilst there was nothing mentioned expressly, I assume they will not assist with travel costs, either.

I can’t provide assistance with this either given the current costs/revenue of the site and I wouldn’t expect someone to attend at their own cost unless they lived nearby and the cost was minimal and offset by the opportunity to be there on press day.

I was never a candidate for attending personally. I have a full-time job and the recent trip to Detroit used up as much time as I can give. I was hoping, however, to send someone that GM could accommodate as has been done for previous events. Unfortunately, this is not to be.

So, we’re going to have to get news on the Saab 9-1 concept the old fashioned way – through Djup Strupes* (should they decide to surface) and waiting for someone to break the press embargo.

It feels like I’m starting this whole blogging thing all over again :-)

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Djup Strupe, for those who are new around here, is Swedish for ‘Deep Throat’ – a multi-headed inside source responsible for many a Saab story here over the years.

Saab BioPower vs. Prius (and all the other hybrids too)

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Gripen here. This is a long post, as is my style, so consider that fair warning. I figure if you’re reading this blog you have a little free time on your hands anyway.

As many regular visitors to Swade’s blog know I’m the resident “treehugger” at TS. Now, let me temper that statement by pointing-out I’m not a nutcase extremist like those Greenies in New Zealand, Australia, and Belgium attacking Saab for trying to do the right thing. Like my political beliefs, in regards to my environmental beliefs I tend to fall smack-dab in the center between extremes. For example, I wouldn’t own a HUMMER, but I wouldn’t own a Prius either. I might own a Chevy Volt, Opel Flextreme, Tesla Roadster, Tesla WhiteStar or Tesla BlueStar if I could, though.

So due to Saab’s traditional ethos of “rightsizing” they’re a good fit for me.

There’s a big political push in the U.S. right now for “reducing our dependence on foreign oil” to achieve “energy independence and security” and we’ve heard previously that Sweden has a goal in pushing ethanol – to wean itself off of petroleum by 2020. Could it be that driving a BioPower Saab running on E85 would help further that goal more than driving a Toyota Prius?

Absolutely. Read on.

Continue reading →

Saab and safety – an indictment on GM that it’s not recognised

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There’s so much news around at the moment that I’m having trouble fitting it all in within one day. The post count could be way higher than what it is right now.

One thing I couldn’t fit in yesterday was sent to me by Tim S and mentioned by Ted in comments – the Consumer Reports brand perception survey. In the results of this survey, Saab rated exactly nowhere for brand recognition when it comes to safety. Volvo was the first response of 77% of respondents.

The survey was done by telephone to around 2,000 people, so this isn’t a check-box affair.

In addition to the Volvo response, it should be noted that vehicle safety was the single most important factor mentioned by respondents when they consider a new vehicle. 63% of respondents considered safety #1.

And as an aside, 35% of people considered environmental friendliness a high priority. This should be a Saab sales point as well, but they didn’t rate there either. For some reason, GMC came in fifth on that score. Saab (and whole bunch of others) were outgreened by GMC.

So safety’s the #1 factor and Volvo owns 77% of that market in the consumer’s mind. And Saab doesn’t even get a mention.

Something’s very wrong with this picture….

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Saab USA love to cling on to the fact that BFJ won an award in it’s initial year and was mentioned as the 6th most recognised brand slogan in that year.

In the words of S.E. Hinton – That was then, this is now.

Sales have continued to fall despite a great new, updated model in the range, and BFJ is telling the customer exactly zero about what the car represents. It incorporates none of the brand pillars, but instead, it occupies that informational space with bells, whistles and catchy music.

Dealer closures, falling sales and a marketing campaign that has little-to-no substance.

How many more flags have to be raised before GM realise that Saab need some real and tangible support?

Saab 9-1 – unofficially official

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I heard from a Saab dealer this morning that they’d received an invitation to the Geneva Auto Salon in March to see a premium compact vehicle concept from Saab.

I guess that’s about as good a confirmation as you can get of the Robert Collin stories in Aftonbladet earlier this month.

This is going to be an incredibly important concept for me, personally. As much as I liked the 9-4x concept when I got to see it in the metal, it’s an SUV and SUV’s just don’t excite me. It’ll serve Saab quite well, I’m sure, as it finds it’s place in the market.

But Saab’s have always been about fun-to-drive and great design for me, and I just can’t imagine the 9-4x ticking those boxes for me. But a new compact Saab? That’s another thing all together.

So I’m going to be looking at several things when this car is unveiled, only one of which I’ll talk about here. But these things will go a very long way to determining my own future with the brand and in particular, the continuity of this site. That’s a matter for another post, but until then, we await Geneva with a great deal of anticipation.

Make it a good one, Saab.

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And by the way, all those blogs that ran with the story about the Saab 9-1 debuting in London in June can kiss my hairy bloggers butt.

I sent around a bunch of emails to various bloggers telling them that this wasn’t going to be the case and not one of them – not one – printed a correcting or cautionary story to set the record straight.

Yes, I’m on the angry pills this morning…..

US Saab dealership closures continue

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There were four dealership closures/mergers in the north-eastern United States in the December-January period.

Now the west coast closure has started, with Saab of Santa Monica closing its doors on February 1.

Scandinavian automotive news rocks the Westside late today: Saab of Santa Monica, one of just three remaining Saab dealerships in LA County, is fated to be shuttered forever on February 1, 2008, having been taken over by a Cadillac dealership. Their website has already been taken offline.

The letter advising the closure (see link above) mentions that the franchise is being taken over by Martin Cadillac – an interesting name for a car guy :-) . It specifically says that Martin Cadillac will be acquiring the Saab franchise, so it’ll be interesting to see which business opens its doors on February 2: Martin Cadillac/Saab of Santa Monica or just Martin Cadillac.

Another Saab dealer bites the dust and GM reap the wind of their neglect once again.